1
00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,084
(woman speaking foreign language)

2
00:00:04,084 --> 00:00:05,167
- It'd be 59.

3
00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,023
(Pawnbroker) I give the same
price to sell or to pawn.

4
00:00:11,010 --> 00:00:12,173
That's good? Okay.

5
00:00:15,327 --> 00:00:17,400
Okay, please put it here.

6
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:18,233
- (Rose Salane) Okay.

7
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,960
- All right, I hope you
didn't pay too much.

8
00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:26,590
How much did you pay?

9
00:00:26,590 --> 00:00:29,027
- I didn't pay so, so much.

10
00:00:29,027 --> 00:00:31,740
- How much do you think they're worth?

11
00:00:31,740 --> 00:00:32,573
- Let's see.

12
00:00:34,500 --> 00:00:39,500
This one, I wish is diamond
engagement ring, but it is not.

13
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,030
- Okay, how much would you?

14
00:00:42,030 --> 00:00:44,673
- You know, it'll bring you like $1.

15
00:00:48,402 --> 00:00:51,309
This one is silver.

16
00:00:51,309 --> 00:00:52,142
- Okay.

17
00:00:52,142 --> 00:00:56,223
- Retail, you can get
$25 if you wanna sell it.

18
00:01:00,930 --> 00:01:04,180
This is metal, has no value.

19
00:01:04,180 --> 00:01:06,597
(soft music)

20
00:01:07,860 --> 00:01:09,360
- (Rose) I've always been drawn to objects

21
00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:11,640
that reflect the everyday
movements of people

22
00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:12,723
throughout the city.

23
00:01:22,230 --> 00:01:23,880
I remember at a young age

24
00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,520
doing these really extensive
commutes to high school

25
00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:30,003
from deep Queens, going into
central parts of Manhattan.

26
00:01:31,470 --> 00:01:33,090
I was commuting alongside people

27
00:01:33,090 --> 00:01:36,390
that were engaging in
so many forms of labor.

28
00:01:36,390 --> 00:01:38,670
People that were going
to their respective jobs

29
00:01:38,670 --> 00:01:40,473
or respective sites of work.

30
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:43,890
I wanted just to understand

31
00:01:43,890 --> 00:01:46,233
the experience of living in New York.

32
00:01:48,900 --> 00:01:51,780
I follow a lot of auctions
throughout the city,

33
00:01:51,780 --> 00:01:54,693
and one of them was the
MTA's Asset Recovery.

34
00:01:56,940 --> 00:01:58,560
Anything that's lost on the subway

35
00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:00,150
that isn't claimed for a year

36
00:02:00,150 --> 00:02:02,283
goes into this Asset Recovery auction.

37
00:02:03,570 --> 00:02:07,263
So I purchased 94 rings
from the MTA auction site.

38
00:02:09,090 --> 00:02:10,620
I remember being taken aback

39
00:02:10,620 --> 00:02:13,863
by this image of all these
rings that were lost.

40
00:02:14,730 --> 00:02:17,970
It almost reminded me of an
overhead view of a crowd,

41
00:02:17,970 --> 00:02:22,113
particularly this image of
the 2003 blackout in New York.

42
00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:27,180
It almost felt like these
rings themselves had the power

43
00:02:27,180 --> 00:02:29,733
to speak about commuters
living in New York.

44
00:02:30,570 --> 00:02:33,210
I'm interested in how this set of objects

45
00:02:33,210 --> 00:02:35,325
reflects a large cast of people.

46
00:02:35,325 --> 00:02:38,575
(soft music continues)

47
00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:41,070
I think the way that I work

48
00:02:41,070 --> 00:02:44,010
is that I examine the many unknowns

49
00:02:44,010 --> 00:02:47,250
that surround these lost
and unclaimed objects,

50
00:02:47,250 --> 00:02:49,708
and then I begin considering
what measurements

51
00:02:49,708 --> 00:02:53,608
or methods can assess
their potential value.

52
00:02:53,608 --> 00:02:56,858
(soft music continues)

53
00:03:03,798 --> 00:03:06,570
How do we determine
something is worth something

54
00:03:06,570 --> 00:03:09,843
or of some importance
to a place or a person?

55
00:03:12,723 --> 00:03:15,640
(machine whirring)

56
00:03:22,980 --> 00:03:26,880
I was curious about taking
mitochondrial DNA samples

57
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,126
from the rings to potentially
get some information

58
00:03:30,126 --> 00:03:34,170
about the biological makeup
of the previous owner

59
00:03:34,170 --> 00:03:36,900
or a lineage, a genetic lineage.

60
00:03:36,900 --> 00:03:37,920
- (Lab Worker) So for your experiment,

61
00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:39,750
we're gonna look at a region of DNA

62
00:03:39,750 --> 00:03:42,690
that tends to get these
mutations added up over time.

63
00:03:42,690 --> 00:03:44,820
So as mom passes it down to daughter,

64
00:03:44,820 --> 00:03:46,980
those mutations carry on.

65
00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:49,440
- (Rose) So we'll swab some of the rings

66
00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,252
and see if there is any
mitochondrial DNA on them.

67
00:03:53,252 --> 00:03:55,800
(soft music)

68
00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:57,723
When you have objects
that have been disengaged

69
00:03:57,723 --> 00:03:59,850
in this way that's so intimate,

70
00:03:59,850 --> 00:04:02,263
which is like obviously
through the finger,

71
00:04:02,263 --> 00:04:05,583
you don't really know what
information you leave behind.

72
00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:09,960
I was really wondering, how does an object

73
00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,410
retain that information
about the previous owner?

74
00:04:13,706 --> 00:04:16,623
(machine whirring)

75
00:04:20,819 --> 00:04:22,350
This amount of information,

76
00:04:22,350 --> 00:04:26,220
which could potentially just
be dirt, is from the ring.

77
00:04:32,393 --> 00:04:33,226
- (Lab Worker) Yeah, that looks great.

78
00:04:33,226 --> 00:04:35,490
So we need to nudge it a little.

79
00:04:35,490 --> 00:04:36,513
Oh yeah, cool.

80
00:04:37,590 --> 00:04:42,590
- (Rose) The one with a very faint
purple but no band is the ring

81
00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,203
meaning that there was no
information that could be found.

82
00:04:47,828 --> 00:04:50,245
(soft music)

83
00:04:51,450 --> 00:04:53,231
What we had found through
this process was that

84
00:04:53,231 --> 00:04:56,920
some forms of information
are just not available.

85
00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,170
(soft music continues)

86
00:05:10,980 --> 00:05:14,119
When I think about how this
collection was assembled,

87
00:05:14,119 --> 00:05:16,920
that all these losses
were brought together

88
00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,080
with the hope to be reclaimed,

89
00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:20,793
there's a lot of humanity in that.

90
00:05:25,260 --> 00:05:27,732
If science doesn't give
us the full picture,

91
00:05:27,732 --> 00:05:31,110
then looking at value
in terms of spirituality

92
00:05:31,110 --> 00:05:33,120
or speculation might give us

93
00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:35,100
a different view of the life experience

94
00:05:35,100 --> 00:05:36,393
of the previous owner.

95
00:05:37,350 --> 00:05:40,413
So I wanted to have the rings
interpreted by a psychic.

96
00:05:42,180 --> 00:05:44,190
The sentimental value of objects

97
00:05:44,190 --> 00:05:46,800
and the way that we cast
our feelings onto things

98
00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:48,960
is very much overlooked

99
00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:52,833
and that's an incredibly
high form of value.

100
00:06:02,550 --> 00:06:05,793
- (Psychic) She was a
young woman, a mother.

101
00:06:07,260 --> 00:06:10,620
Spent a lot of time with her
family, with her children.

102
00:06:10,620 --> 00:06:11,767
- (Rose) Do you know how many children

103
00:06:11,767 --> 00:06:13,390
would she have had?
- Three.

104
00:06:13,390 --> 00:06:14,223
- Three.

105
00:06:14,223 --> 00:06:15,240
- Two boys, one girl.

106
00:06:20,220 --> 00:06:21,270
I don't know why, but this one,

107
00:06:21,270 --> 00:06:22,670
I'm not picking up anything.

108
00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:29,670
This one's a very, very
special ring to someone,

109
00:06:29,670 --> 00:06:31,713
and they was very sad when they lost it.

110
00:06:32,790 --> 00:06:35,240
Till today, they still
try looking for this ring.

111
00:06:37,500 --> 00:06:38,333
One of those macho, tough guys.

112
00:06:38,333 --> 00:06:39,166
Very happy person.

113
00:06:42,690 --> 00:06:46,773
Lot of class, very outgoing,
had a lot of hard times,

114
00:06:47,910 --> 00:06:49,680
got into a lot of trouble,

115
00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,813
and he also served time in jail.

116
00:06:54,060 --> 00:06:56,520
- What is he currently doing now?

117
00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:58,413
- He's kind of still up to no good.

118
00:06:59,385 --> 00:07:01,512
He's not straightening out.

119
00:07:01,512 --> 00:07:05,853
He wants to, he tried, but
it's just the way his life is.

120
00:07:10,997 --> 00:07:13,414
(soft music)

121
00:07:14,579 --> 00:07:18,300
- (Rose) The ring project really
led me to kind of understand

122
00:07:18,300 --> 00:07:22,023
how to deal with this side
of loss, but also regaining.

123
00:07:25,350 --> 00:07:26,760
I've always been interested in

124
00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,592
how an object could
retell a personal history

125
00:07:29,592 --> 00:07:32,580
but also the familiarity in them

126
00:07:32,580 --> 00:07:35,562
that can trigger more
questions and stories.

127
00:07:35,562 --> 00:07:38,812
(soft music continues)

128
00:07:45,630 --> 00:07:47,835
These objects are just a small soundbite

129
00:07:47,835 --> 00:07:50,741
of a large chaotic city.

130
00:07:50,741 --> 00:07:53,491
(coins clinking)

131
00:07:54,900 --> 00:07:57,930
Now I acquired around 800 pounds of coins

132
00:07:57,930 --> 00:08:00,063
that were used to pay for bus fair.

133
00:08:01,890 --> 00:08:05,970
They ranged from casino
tokens to religious pendants

134
00:08:05,970 --> 00:08:08,553
to completely blank pieces of hardware.

135
00:08:11,190 --> 00:08:14,340
To me, these coins reflect the population

136
00:08:14,340 --> 00:08:17,733
and represent a lot of
really big themes in society.

137
00:08:19,237 --> 00:08:20,490
(coins clinking)

138
00:08:20,490 --> 00:08:22,886
Usually, the objects I find are lost

139
00:08:22,886 --> 00:08:25,500
so I like to recirculate this object back

140
00:08:25,500 --> 00:08:28,454
into the eyes of those that
are living in New York City.

141
00:08:28,454 --> 00:08:31,704
(soft music continues)

142
00:08:34,770 --> 00:08:36,267
I was dealing so much with these coins,

143
00:08:36,267 --> 00:08:38,430
these close up moments,

144
00:08:38,430 --> 00:08:41,070
seeing all of them
together and zooming out,

145
00:08:41,070 --> 00:08:42,930
I was like, oh my goodness.

146
00:08:42,930 --> 00:08:45,928
I really created this view
of the city that I inhabit.

147
00:08:45,928 --> 00:08:49,530
(soft music continues)

148
00:08:49,530 --> 00:08:51,373
When you look at these objects,

149
00:08:51,373 --> 00:08:53,881
you see so many different people

150
00:08:53,881 --> 00:08:56,973
and you so many different stories,

151
00:08:58,170 --> 00:08:59,823
you see so many lives lived.

152
00:09:01,404 --> 00:09:04,654
(soft music continues)